Mad Enough to Marry - By Christie Ridgway Page 0,40

get moving, would you?"

He cast another grumpy look at her over liis shoulder as he tramped up the steps. ' 'Bad day at the office, dear?"

She ignored the comment by focusing on the way the tails of his shirt hugged the denim curving over his rear end as he mounted the second flight of stairs. He shouldn't have that smile and that dark-golden hair and such a great behind, too. Really, there was just so much to resent about him.

Her ire was at a nice bubble when he paused outside the door of her apartment. **Keep moving, you're the next door down." With one hand at the small of his back, she gave him a shove.

Now why wasn't she surprised that he turned around instead of going forward?

She once again set her belongings on the floor and crossed her arms over her chest. **What now?"

It was mostly dark up here, too, and she couldn't read the expression on his face. *'I remember something about a kiss good night."

She rolled her eyes. *'Some other time. Rip Van Winkle."

He leaned one shoulder against her door. "What's got you riled?"

**Never mind." To move him out of the way, she put her hands on his chest. Bad idea. His skin was hot, his chest hair crisp against her palms. She jerked them away. *'Good night, Logan."

**My kiss." His voice still sounded sleepy, but there was a thread of amusement there too.

''Logan."

''Don't get so huffy, I'm too tired even to pucker up." He leaned forward and turned his cheek. ''Right here, sweetheart, and then I'll trudge down to my apartment and fall right back to sleep."

While she, on the other hand, would be left awake and aching. Oh, no. She refused to be the lone lust-tortured tonight. "Whatever you say, Logan," she said sweetly.

Then she rose on tiptoe and put her mouth against

his cheek. She didn't pucker up either. Instead, she left her mouth open and soft, then used her tongue to trace a wet path across to his lips.

His head automatically turned to meet hers and then she planted a juicy, sensual kiss on him. Holding on to his shoulders, she tilted her head to improve the fit of their mouths. She thrust her tongue between his lips, over the slick surface of his teeth, then laid it along his tongue, rubbing hers against his like a kitten in search of a cuddle.

His hands shot out to clutch her waist as she kept up the heat and the intensity of the kiss. Her palms sUd from his shoulders, down his shirt and then inward, returning to the bare skin of his chest. She drew the edges of his shirt apart, then pushed it off his shoulders. When the garment caught on his elbows, she fell back on her heels. It broke the mouth-to-mouth kiss and left her staring at the muscled swells of his pecs.

Surrendering to instinct, she brought her mouth to one firm curve and tasted that too.

He groaned, his fingers tightening on her flesh. Elena forced her mouth off him, forced herself to step back.

My work here is finished, she thought, trying to control the ragged seesaw of her breathing. '*Have a nice rest,*' she said, proud of her casual, so-calm tone.

**Mmm." He was silent a moment, and then he yawned. Hugely. **See you tomorrow."

As he turned from her, she heard herself call his name.

*'Can it wait?" he asked, still walking away. *'rm damn tired."

And she was so buzzed on the taste, the feel of him that it was as if she'd downed cups of pure caffeine. Yet Logan was walking away.

He'd yawned after that kiss!

Oh, she'd give him something he couldn't walk away from. Her pride injured, her sensual skills challenged, she pounced, determined to drag him back. Her hand only found fabric, though, his shirt puUing completely free of his body as he continued forward.

But then he halted, turned, looked at her. Thanks to the shadows, she had to imagine his eyebrow winging up, though she knew it was happening all the same. ''Sweetheart—"

"Don't 'sweetheart' me." She leaped forward and this time her hand found his. She hauled him to her door, pushed his back against it, then grabbed his hair with both hands to pull his head down to hers.

He laughed, the sound alert, awake, and quite, quite satisfied.

"Unh!" She grunted in frustration and released his head with enough force to send it thunking against the door.

"Ow." He rubbed at the back of his head. "What was that for?"

"You